AI isn’t new to Hollywood — but this was the year when it really made its presence felt. For years now, the entertainment industry has used different kinds of generative AI products for a variety of post-production processes ranging from de-aging actors to removing green screen backgrounds. In many instances, the technology has been a useful tool for human artists tasked with tedious and painstaking labor that might have otherwise taken them inordinate amounts of time to complete. But in 2025, Hollywood really began warming to the idea of deploying the kind of gen AI that’s really only good for conjuring up text-to-video slop that doesn’t have all that many practical uses in traditional production workflows. Despite all of the money and effort being put into it, there’s yet to be a gen-AI project that has shown why it’s worth all of the hype.
Technology
7 things Google just announced that are worth keeping a close eye on
Google’s flagship developer conference called I/O just wrapped up with interesting leaps in how the big tech giant is planning to change the world.
Here are the seven biggest things we learned from Google at I/O 2024.
Google’s injecting AI into nearly every aspect of its products and services
Google’s I/O 2024 conference (Google)
Google’s I/O event was largely an opportunity for it to make its case to developers — and, to a lesser extent, consumers — as to why its artificial intelligence is ahead of rivals Microsoft and OpenAI. Here’s a rundown of the seven highlights to keep an eye on. Google’s AI, named Gemini, was featured prominently at the I/O conference and is now available to developers worldwide.
CLICK TO GET KURT’S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK VIDEO TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER
According to the conference, Gemini is now capable of pulling information from text, photos, audio, web pages and live videos from your phone’s camera and is able to synthesize the information it receives and answer questions you may have about it. Here’s what the Gemini improvements look like in practice.
1. Phone call scam detection coming to Android could compromise your privacy
Google showed a demo for its phone call scam detection feature, which the company says will be coming to a future version of Android. How it works is revolutionary and concerning. The feature will scan voice calls as they occur in real time, and it’s already drawing enormous privacy concerns.
It would be like allowing your phone calls to be tapped and monitored by big tech instead of big brother. Apple had planned a similar feature on iOS back in 2021 but abandoned it after backlash from privacy advocates. Google is under similar pressure, with privacy advocates worried that the company notorious for harvesting and profiting from personal data might soon misuse AI voice scanning technology.
IS THE FTC CALLING YOU? PROBABLY NOT. HERE’S HOW TO AVOID A NEW PHONE SCAM TARGETING YOU.
2. ‘Ask Photos’ will let AI help you find out about specific things in photos
The Ask Photos feature (Google)
Google unveiled a new feature called Ask Photos, in which users can ask Gemini to search for their photos and deliver exact results. One example showcased was the use of Gemini to locate images of your car in your photo album by telling it your license plate number.
QUICK TIPS. EXPERT INSIGHTS. CLICK TO GET THE FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER
3. An AI button is coming to many of Google’s most popular productivity tools
Starting immediately, Google has added a button to toggle Gemini AI in the side panel of several of its Google Suite apps, including Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. Similar to Microsoft’s Co-Pilot AI function, the Gemini button can help answer questions, craft emails and provide summaries of documents and email threads.
HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM GMAIL SIGNATURE
4. AI tool called ‘Veo’ makes video from text
Music AI Sandbox (Google)
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
On a more experimental note, Google also unveiled its VideoFX feature, a generative video model based on Google’s DeepMind video generator. Veo. VideoFX can create Full HD (1080p) videos from text prompts, and we also saw improvements made to ImageFX, Google’s high-resolution AI image generator.
For musicians, Google also showed their new DJ Mode in MusicFX, an AI music generator that can be used to create loops and samples from prompts.
QUICK TIPS. EXPERT INSIGHTS. CLICK TO GET THE FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER
5. AI summaries will replace search results
A Google search (Google)
There’s been a lot of press lately regarding how difficult searching for things on Google has become. Constant changes to search engine optimization as well as a new wave of bots and AI-created content has disrupted the once monolithic search engine. However, Google showed off its new AI-organized search, which promises more readable search results.
Google also showed off how it is using AI to create overviews, which are short summaries to help you answer questions posed in the search box. These summaries will appear at the top of the search results page, so you don’t even need to visit another website to get answers you may be looking for.
6. Google TV gets the AI treatment
Google managed to work its Gemini AI into its Google TV smart TV operating system, allowing it to generate descriptions for movies and TV shows. When you are viewing content that is missing a description, Gemini will fill it in automatically. Gemini on Google TV will also now translate descriptions into the viewers’ native language, making it easier to find international shows and movies to watch.
7. AI for educational purposes
HOW TO DELETE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR GOOGLE SEARCHES
Google also unveiled LearnLM, a new generative AI model that is designed for education. It comes as a collaboration between Google’s DeepMind AI research division and Google’s Research lab. LearnLM is designed as a chatbot that looks to tutor students on a range of subjects, from mathematics to English grammar.
EXPERT TIPS, LEGIT REVIEWS. GET THE FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER
Kurt’s key takeaways
If you missed Google I/O 2024, here’s the scoop: Google’s AI, Gemini, stole the show with its ability to integrate information from various media and answer your queries on the fly. Noteworthy features include a call scam detection for Android, a photo search tool that can find your car using your license plate number and the integration of Gemini into Google’s Workspace suite for smarter document handling.
Plus, Google’s new AI-powered search promises more readable results, and Google TV now boasts AI-generated content descriptions. For creatives and learners, Google introduced VideoFX for AI-generated videos, MusicFX’s DJ Mode for music creation and LearnLM, an AI tutor for students. It’s clear that Google is betting big on AI to keep ahead of the competition.
Are there any concerns that you believe should be addressed as these technologies become more integrated into our personal and professional environments? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter
Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover
Follow Kurt on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram
Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:
Copyright 2024 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.
Unlike the day after Thanksgiving, when people are rushing online and to the stores to look for deals, the day after Christmas is usually a time to recover from the festivities and check your budget to see how much all that gifting has cost you. However, if you’re in a shopping mood, or if you suddenly realized you forgot somebody important, there are still some deals out there.
For example, Nintendo is offering a bunch of its best-known games at deals ranging from 25 to 50 percent off. These include Princess Peach: Showtime ($41.99 down from $59.99), The Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom (also ($41.99 down from $59.99), Super Mario Odyssey ($39.99 down from $59.99), Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition ($39.99 down from $69.99) — and a slew of others.
Princess Peach: Showtime!
Where to Buy:
-
$59.99$49.99 at Amazon -
$59.99$41.99 at Nintendo
So if you’ve received a new Switch 2 for the holidays — or you gifted yourself one — this is a great way to start assembling your game library for the new year.
Other great deals
Amazon is still offering major discounts on some of its smart speakers. For example, the Amazon Echo Spot, a nifty bedside smart speaker / clock, is on sale at Amazon for $44.99 down from $79.99, the lowest price it has sold for. If you want something with a screen, the Echo Show 5 is available at Amazon for $59.99, down from $89.99, and while it’s gone down as low as $39.99 in the past, this isn’t a bad price if you want one now. Read our reviews of the Echo Spot and the Echo Show 5.
Anker’s Prime Charger is a charging station which supports 250W output via four USB-C and two USB-A ports. It’s now at its lowest price of $99.99 (down from $169.99, a savings of $70) at Amazon and at Anker (using the code WS7DV2I5IMSW).
You can still get an Apple Airtag for $19 (down from $29) at Walmart — and after all, how can you have too many of these handy trackers (our choice as best tracker for iPhone users), especially if you’ve gotten any holiday gifts that you really don’t want to misplace? Read our original review.
A new op-ed explores how we can live and work with artificial intelligence without losing our humanity. (Nastasic/Getty Images)
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:
– Here’s how we can live and work with artificial intelligence without losing our humanity
– Amazon adds controversial AI facial recognition to Ring
– New US military GenAI tool ‘critical first step’ in future of warfare, says expert
OPINION: The Vatican’s recent document on artificial intelligence, Antiqua et Nova — “The Old and the New” — is not a technical treatise, but a philosophical reminder: The advance of AI provokes in new ways fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and the kind of people we must become to wield powerful tools responsibly.
The Vatican’s document on artificial intelligence and comments from Pope Leo XIV frame AI as a powerful human achievement while warning that easy access to information can undermine genuine understanding, especially among the young. (iStock)
‘FAMILIAR FACES’: Amazon’s Ring video doorbells are getting a major artificial intelligence (AI) upgrade, and it is already stirring controversy. The company has started rolling out a new feature called Familiar Faces to Ring owners across the United States. Once enabled, the feature uses AI-powered facial recognition to identify people who regularly appear at your door. Instead of a generic alert saying a person is at your door, you might see something far more personal, like “Mom at Front Door.” On the surface, that sounds convenient.
‘FORGE AHEAD’: The recently launched “GenAI” tool for U.S. service members and Department of War workers is a “critical first step” in the future of warfare, according to a military expert. This month, the Pentagon announced the launch of GenAI.mil, a military-focused AI platform powered by Google Gemini. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the platform is designed to give U.S. military personnel direct access to AI tools to help “revolutioniz[e] the way we win.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed reporters during a Pentagon news conference in Arlington, Virginia, on June 26, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
POWER SHIFT: China is racing ahead of the U.S. in artificial intelligence (AI), bypassing regulatory roadblocks that O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary warns are leaving America dangerously behind.
THE NEXT FRONTIER: Google executive Royal Hansen responded to some lawmakers’ calls to slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the U.S., emphasizing the need to develop and use the technology responsibly rather than fall behind other countries.
FEED FREEDOM NOW: Instagram is rolling out a new tool called Your Algorithm that gives you direct control over the videos that fill your Reels tab. Your interests shift as time moves on. Now your feed can shift with you in real time.
‘AHEAD OF THE GAME’: FBI Director Kash Patel said Saturday the agency is ramping up its use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to counter domestic and international threats. In a post on X, Patel said the FBI has been advancing its technology, calling AI a “key component” of its strategy to respond to threats and stay “ahead of the game.”
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WHO’S IN CHARGE?: A week after Time Magazine named the “Architects of AI” as Person of the Year, the latest Fox News national survey of registered voters finds broad support for careful development of artificial intelligence — yet little agreement on who should regulate it. The poll, released Thursday, finds 8 in 10 voters favor a careful approach to developing AI to manage potential risks to the U.S., while 2 in 10 prefer rapid advancement to stay ahead of countries like China.
FOLLOW FOX NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
X
LinkedIn
SIGN UP FOR OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS
Fox News First
Fox News Opinion
Fox News Lifestyle
Fox News Health
DOWNLOAD OUR APPS
Fox News
Fox Business
Fox Weather
Fox Sports
Tubi
WATCH FOX NEWS ONLINE
Fox News Go
STREAM FOX NATION
Fox Nation
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.
This confluence of Hollywood and AI didn’t start out so rosy. Studios were in a prime position to take the companies behind this technology to court because their video generation models had clearly been trained on copyrighted intellectual property. A number of major production companies including Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery did file lawsuits against AI firms and their boosters for that very reason. But rather than pummeling AI purveyors into the ground, some of Hollywood’s biggest power players chose instead to get into bed with them. We have only just begun to see what can come from this new era of gen-AI partnerships, but all signs point to things getting much sloppier in the very near future.
Though many of this year’s gen-AI headlines were dominated by larger outfits like Google and OpenAI, we also saw a number of smaller players vying for a seat at the entertainment table. There was Asteria, Natasha Lyonne’s startup focused on developing film projects with “ethically” engineered video generation models, and startups like Showrunner, an Amazon-backed platform designed to let subscribers create animated “shows” (a very generous term) from just a few descriptive sentences plugged into Discord. These relatively new companies were all desperate to legitimize the idea that their flavor of gen AI could be used to supercharge film / TV development while bringing down overall production costs.
Asteria didn’t have anything more than hype to share with the public after announcing its first film, and it was hard to believe that normal people would be interested in paying for Showrunner’s shoddily cobbled-together knockoffs of shows made by actual animators. In the latter case, it felt very much like Showrunner’s real goal was to secure juicy partnerships with established studios like Disney that would lead to their tech being baked into platforms where users could prompt up bespoke content featuring recognizable characters from massive franchises.
That idea seemed fairly ridiculous when Showrunner first hit the scene because its models churn out the modern equivalent of clunky JibJab cartoons. But in due time, Disney made it clear that — crappy as text-to-video generators tend to be for anything beyond quick memes — it was interested in experimenting with that kind of content. In December, Disney entered into a three-year, billion-dollar licensing deal with OpenAI that would let Sora users make AI videos with 200 different characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and more.
Netflix became one of the first big studios to proudly announce that it was going all-in on gen AI. After using the technology to produce special effects for one of its original series, the streamer published a list of general guidelines it wanted its partners to follow if they planned to jump on the slop bandwagon as well. Though Netflix wasn’t mandating that filmmakers use gen AI, it made clear that saving money on VFX work was one of the main reasons it was coming out in support of the trend. And it wasn’t long before Amazon followed suit by releasing multiple Japanese anime series that were terribly localized into other languages because the dubbing process didn’t involve any human translators or voice actors.
Amazon’s gen-AI dubs became a shining example of how poorly this technology can perform. They also highlighted how some studios aren’t putting all that much effort into making sure that their gen AI-derived projects are polished enough to be released to the public. That was also true of Amazon’s machine-generated TV recaps, which frequently got details about different shows very wrong. Both of these fiascos made it seem as if Amazon somehow thought that people wouldn’t notice or care about AI’s inability to consistently generate high-quality outputs. The studio quickly pulled its AI-dubbed series and the recap feature down, but it didn’t say that it wouldn’t try this kind of nonsense again.
All of this and other dumb stunts like AI “actress” Tilly Norwood made it feel like certain segments of the entertainment industry were becoming more comfortable trying to foist gen-AI “entertainment” on people even though it left many people deeply unimpressed and put off. None of these projects demonstrated to the public why anyone except for money-pinching execs (and people who worship them for some reason) would be excited by a future shaped by this technology.
Aside from a few unimpressive images, we still haven’t seen what all might come from some of these collaborations, like Disney cozying up to OpenAI. But next year AI’s presence in Hollywood will be even more pronounced. Disney plans to dedicate an entire section of its streaming service to user-generated content sourced from Sora, and it will encourage Disney employees to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT products. But the deal’s real significance in this current moment is the message it sends to other studios about how they should move as Hollywood enters its slop era.
Regardless of whether Disney thinks this will work out well, the studio has signaled that it doesn’t want to be left behind if AI adoption keeps accelerating. That tells other production houses that they should follow suit, and if that becomes the case, there’s no telling how much more of this stuff we are all going to be forced to endure.
‘The Rest of Our Lives’ takes readers on a midlife crisis road trip
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and other Nintendo games are up to 50 percent off
Nigeria says it shared intelligence to support US strikes on ISIS
Pro-police group asks DOJ to probe Soros-backed Virginia prosecutor using Biden-era law once aimed at cops
4 anti-aging approaches revealed in 2025 that may help Americans live longer
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Pro-police group asks DOJ to probe Soros-backed Virginia prosecutor using Biden-era law once aimed at cops
Israel becomes first country to recognise Somaliland
A murder, a manhunt and the grandmother who wouldn’t stop the search for her daughter’s killer
Nonprofit uses underwater technology to search for missing service members
Best of 2025: Top five defining moments in the European Parliament
-
Maine1 week agoElementary-aged student killed in school bus crash in southern Maine
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, shot and killed in his home in Brookline, Mass. | Fortune
-
New Mexico1 week agoFamily clarifies why they believe missing New Mexico man is dead
-
Culture1 week agoTry This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen
-
World7 days agoPutin says Russia won’t launch new attacks on other countries ‘if you treat us with respect’
-
Entertainment2 days agoPat Finn, comedy actor known for roles in ‘The Middle’ and ‘Seinfeld,’ dies at 60
-
Minneapolis, MN1 week agoMinneapolis man is third convicted in Coon Rapids triple murder
-
Maine1 week agoFamily in Maine host food pantry for deer | Hand Off